The Cardinal Countdown: 53 Days Until Kickoff

#53 Amonte Caban

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-1/226

Position: Linebacker

Hometown: Smiths, AL

Twitter: @amonte_caban

Thoughts: Caban was a very solid pull for Coach L.D. Scott and the Cards back in September. While the Florida pipeline is still open and flowing, Scott sets the Cards up very nicely in his home state of Alabama. Look no further than the 2015 recruiting class to see the results of his efforts. The Cards received 5 commitments from Alabama this year (Tim Bonner, Dee Smith, Traveon Samuel, Kenny Thomas, and Caban) and each has the potential to make an impact within the next two seasons. Scott was also instrumental in pulling Alabama native Charles Standberry last year. I like what Coach Scott is doing and it doesn’t go unnoticed around here, or on the campuses of Alabama and Auburn. (Card beat out 4 SEC schools and rival Clemson for Caban)

Of the five I previously mentioned Samuel and Bonner have been getting some summer hype, but Caban is the foundation we need at the linebacker position. Caban comes in with a reputation for being extremely athletic and processes an explosiveness that’s hard to contain. He reminds me of a young James Burgess, i.e. the kid is a missile.

I’m not saying watch all 15 minutes, but try and squeeze in the first two minutes. He almost kills three people and I believe he decapitates a QB…if you can’t spare two minutes at least watch the first 23 seconds.

This year’s team is stacked at linebacker and will lead a defense hailed by most as the best in conference (neck and neck with Va Tech). Next season, if we don’t have any early enrollees, we could potentially return upperclassmen Kelsey, Keith Brown, Dawson-Brents and DeVonte Fields at linebacker. Good Lord man. To continue the trend of producing monsters in the middle moving forward the “reload” has to begin this year. Caban, along with Bonner, Stacy Thomas, Isaac Stewart, and the rest of the underclassmen need to learn the system, get practice reps, and do what is asked until their time comes. I’m not saying a handful of these guys won’t see the field this season, but they will be thrust into starting roles soon enough. We’ve got some extremely talented freshmen this year across the board but Caban is my “future stud” prediction for the Class of 2019.

Sweet Tweet:

I got the worst luck with phones

— ¡Cru7zKoon!¡ (@amonte_caban) April 30, 2015

I’m not really sure what everyone is doing with their phones these days. I saw a Facebook post last week from a friend of mine that has gone through 4 iPhones in the last two years?!? You do realize these things are just manufactured plastic right, or at the very least a very fragile alloy? Let’s pump the brakes on casually tossing them on a wooden table, or maybe hold off on sliding them in that back pocket that you just so happen to apply pressure too EVERY TIME YOU SIT DOWN and please, please, please, can we stop handing them over to the unattended 3 and 4 year old and then act shocked when they wind up shattered?

I realize with the carrier discounts and various contracts the prices drop but you still have a $500-600 piece of equipment here people. When you drop 500 bucks on a engine repair do you let little Jimmy take a look under the hood afterwards? If you spend 500 bones on some new carpet do you give your baby girl a box of markers just too see what happens? Of course not. Come on folks, we can do better. There is a brand new phone out there somewhere right now dreaming of what his new life may be, how he can help his new owner, provide directions, schedule appointments, calculate tips, tweet his thoughts….and three weeks later, Frank drops him in the toilet.

Gone too soon little buddy.

He was so young.